About Me

Recovering academic, blogger-back-from-the-dead, and one-year veteran of the workforce. Now an organizational embed, with lessons learned from the trenches and stories to tell. All with a not-so-slightly academic twist.

Sunday, February 08, 2009

what on earth is a "date" movie?!

Apart from finding mutually agreeable viewing fare, I don't get why "date movies" have to be any different from "movies you would like to see in general." In fact, marketed-as-date-movies are guaranteed to be craptastic, since they will be terrible romantic comedies. Cough How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days cough (I have never seen that movie, but it sounds terrible, and I was delighted to hear that some other pre-Belle girl had made TD see that movie with him, so he must now appreciate my good taste and anti-chickflickery). I thought Vicky Christina Barcelona was somewhat of a date movie, apart from it's rather honest and jaundiced view of love, just because it was smart and sexy. Most foreign movies are. Why do American romantic comedies suck so hard? Fie on the idea of a "date movie!" I mean, there are unsettling movies to watch as a couple (I'm thinking Adrian Lynne's "Unfaithful" or Neil Jordan's "The End of the Affair"), but otherwise, I think couples should hold the same aesthetic standards as they would individually. Who knows, maybe it's cathartic to watch movies about infidelity, although I think it may just be uncomfortable and a starting point to an awkward conversation that would begin "well _I_ would never do that", but then you would wonder why you had to say that--probably to hear it back, to be comforted after watching something so unsettling.

It's hard to find "sexy" movies to watch together anyhow, since "sexy" is so idiosyncratic and most movies containing sex (at least, good, non-porn ones) are too complex and will probably feature the more unsavory side of love, like jealousy and infidelity and anger (e.g. In the Mood for Love, possibly one of my favorites). One of our earliest dates was watching High Fidelity, and I was impressed and amused by his ability to recite all of the lines with perfect timing. In some cases, romantic comedies work, but only if you are two giant dorks. But I wouldn't call that movie sexy by any means. Nor was "A River Runs Through It," the last movie we saw, or before that, "The Hudsucker Proxy." I can't think of the last sexy movie we saw together. Do they still make any? I am far too one-track minded to combine both cinematic pleasure with sexual seduction: my one-track mind leads me to suggest things like "hey, let's watch Das Boot, it's awesome!" and think that I'll unsubtly try to bat my eyelashes without looking like I am having a seizure later, after the crew surfaces and goes home dispiritedly to La Rochelle. You know, one thing at a time. I can see how some movies are just anti-sexy (see, e.g., movies with extended torture scenes, lots of drug use, lots of drawn out killing rather than explosions, things featuring Pauly Shore or Carrot Top, etc. ), but in general, a movie that makes one happy or full of adrenaline (good comedies and action movies) should make one ready for anything. Does the mind need that much coaxing into changing tracks?